"The three-year-old is eager to please."

[gcgirl]

I keep seeing these words! But I do not understand where they come from!

My friends warned me that it's not the twos that are terrible - it's the threes. And NOW I get it. It's not that he is terrible, but it's definitely harder than two. DS is 3.25 and pushes back against EVERYTHING. He's mouthy, provocative, and certainly doesn't seem interested in pleasing me or DH! 

He's also creative, energetic, fun, and loves to play. I wish I had the energy to keep up with him.

Is it just me? Or was three harder than expected for anyone else?

[Limabean1975]

A brief reply: YES, three is way harder than two.  "Terrible twos"???? Pfffft.

[titania8]

yea, no kidding. i had two 3 yos, and yea.....it was a challenge. 2 is a breeze compared to 3, and i knew that before i even had kids! lol! used to work in daycare and i knew it then! my neighbor warned me too. she was right.

[madskye]

3 was really hard here, too.  At 2, I still saw a baby and I had a lot of patience.  When my DD hit 3 I started to get those feelings that she should know or do xyz...but now I look back and can see what a baby she still was.  I am telling myself the same thing now that she's five, when i get frustrated.

Also, becoming verbal is such a big deal...learning how to communicate POLITELY using words...it's a long journey. 

Now at almost six, DD is really so much easier, so I assure you, it will get better.

[AllisonR]

I thought 2 was a piece of cake. I thought 3 was a even better, very exciting and enjoyable.

IMO, 4.5 is bad - tons of saucy attitude, free will and self-proclaimed entitlement gone amuck. Yuck. DS was moody and pesty age 4, got better by 5. DD is 4.5 and in the thick of it. I am hoping 5 will be better for her as well.  

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by AllisonR 

I thought 2 was a piece of cake. I thought 3 was a even better, very exciting and enjoyable.

IMO, 4.5 is bad - tons of saucy attitude, free will and self-proclaimed entitlement gone amuck. Yuck. DS was moody and pesty age 4, got better by 5. DD is 4.5 and in the thick of it. I am hoping 5 will be better for her as well.  

Yeah, 2 and 3 were fun but 4 was BAD.  It improved slowly after that for us.  But I'm finding I'm having a hard time with other people's 6 yos.  So even though 6 was not a bad age for ds, it seems to be for many.  Or maybe that's the age when they spread the joy and get saucy with other people's moms...

[shanniesue2]

I also don't get the "Eager to please" crap.  Seriously?  DS is just now turning 3, but he's been acting like a 3 year old for a while, and yeah... not fun.  The other day, I had a moment where I was soooooooooo tempted to spank him, it wasn't even funny.  We were at Target and he climbed into the shopping cart storage area and refused to come out.  Yeah, eager to please himself!  It's fun to frustrate mommy!

[~cassie]

3 was a breeze with my first kid, it was 4 that was worse!  My middle son, 3's are awful, 2's were a little less awful but still not fun.  Hoping my youngest son follows like my oldest did and skips "terrible 3's"

[Nicole730]

DS turns 3 in a couple months and the last week has been awful.  I have no idea what happened to my sweet little boy, but I want him back!  I've heard that kids are tough at 2 or 3 usually.  Apparently DS chose 3.  I'm kind of crossing my fingers that once the weather gets better and we can get outside more, DS' attitude will improve.  It will help that he will be able to expel energy outside, instead of inside climbing the couch, tables, chairs, beds, etc...  I've taken to having him run laps around our tiny ranch just to get him to get that energy out.

[Smokering]

See, I like four-year-olds. I worked at a kindy for six months; all the kids were four, and for the most part they were still unsophisticated and artless enough to be charming, but bright enough you could do worthwhile crafts with them, read good books and so on. That said, some of them did swear like troopers... When I moved to working at a school (I was shadowing a special needs kid, so I "moved up" when he did), I found the five-year-olds a lot more intimidating! They seemed way more socially sophisticated, and not in a good way.

DD's nearly three. All in all, the "terrible twos" haven't been too bad at all; she's mostly easier to deal with as she gets more fluent at communication (and she's pretty darn fluent!). So I'm... interested... to see what three will bring. Right now she's usually very eager to please, but also has a strong will and an insane temper.